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CRUISING IN TH E 
MEDITERRAN EAN 



IMPRESSIONS AND 
SKETCHES BY . . . . 



DR. M. BAUMFELD 



Price, Fifty Cents. 



Copyright, 1905, 

By EMIL L. BOAS, 

New York. 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 


Two Copies Received 

AUG 17 1905 


Copyright Entry 
CLA^ ct, XXc. No. 

copY 6; 



The South Publishing Press, 

Designers, Engravers and Printers, 

195 Fulton St., New York. 



Cruising in the Mediterranean 



I. 

^The Poor Millionaires — Crossing the Ocean in a 
Yacht — The German Emperor as the Father of 
the Tacht-de-Luxe — A. Navy of Pleasure Yachts — 
The Great Moral Service. 

The prerogative of the poor millionaires to a bit of lux- 
ury is constantly being infringed upon. The sphere of those 
exclusive privileges, formerly only accessible to the rich, is 
being visibly reduced in favor of those possessing but average 
wealth. Nearly every whim of every millionaire is being 
modelled and remodelled by enterprising persons until it be- 
comes attainable with an outlay of a very reasonable amount 
of money. Horse and carriage, even the most thoroughbred 
race horse, wheel and automobile, all attractions of a sailing 
or hunting ground, not to enumerate any more of the endless 
pleasures, have long lost the fascination of being unattain- 
able by the average mortal. Thus the tables are being turned 
upon wealth, until sooner or later, it will lose its most subtle 
charms. For assuredly the keenest human pleasure can only 
develop with the knowledge that what we possess is unattain- 
able to others and that we are the objects of the deepest envy. 
Our real millionaires must now face and solve the difficult 
problem, find new pleasures, invent new delights of so com- 
plicated and costly a nature that even the possessors of scant 
millions, humiliated and overwhelmed, must become conscious 
of their nonentity. 

The marvelous playroom for these ambitions seemingly 
was open to them alone in a sphere truly kingly in its way, 
knowing no bounds in the sums devoted thereto, following 
each inspiration like a quitk echo, veritably making the en- 
tire world the play-toy of any momentary notion. All this 




S. S. PRINZESSIN VICTORIA LUISE. 
Social Hall. S.S. Prinzessiri Victoria Luise. Library. 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 7 

then to be enjoyed after an excellent dinner, in select com- 
pany and the best of cigars. To the owner of a luxurious 
yacht any spot in this wide world most naturally stands open 
at any hour of any day. His boat is lying here or there under 
steam, a thought need but be transformed to a command and 
amid all the exquisite luxury of his life on land he can drift 
over the sparkling ocean to — anywhere — any place which hap- 
pens to be the correct sound-board for the momentary mood, 
be it elated or dejected, of the prince of this yacht. His go- 
ing and his coming are controlled l)ut by the desire of the 
moment. He steps on land as a stranger whose fatherland 
is rocking on the waters. Swift launches form the bridges 
which can at any minute 1)e withdrawn as quickly as they 
have been drawn. From the most primitive or the ruins of 
the highest civilization he can seek refuge in tlie never- 
changing comfort of his 3^acht, leave the bewildering and 
exotic quaintness of kitchen and cellar and return to the 
tried, strictly regulated perfection, which artists' hands have 
prepared for him on board. 

The well-schooled servants with whom signs take the 
place of words, frequently even read his thoughts. The blos- 
soms of sociabilitv north-south-east-westward unfold their 
soft s]:)lendor uninfluenced 1)y wind or weather. On the top- 
most deck rests the nrince of all these wonders and ponders 
how fortunate it is that at least this highest fascination of 
crossing the ocean on a yacht must forever remain denied 
to the beggardly plebeians who with their hustling persever- 
ance and talent for concentrated enjoyment have already 
robbed him of all pleasure in hunt and game, sport and 
woman, art and nature. 

Even this bpautiful dream soon vanished. All these fas- 
cinations can to-day be bought. Not even at too hiah a price. 
Throughout the entire year opportunities are offered to us, 
and without the slightest trouble we can reach the place where 
the "Prinzessin Victoria Luise" and the "Meteor,'^ the most 
enjovable of all pleasure yachts, are lying at anchor. The 
development in the means of ocean travel during the last ten 
years has shown a veritable revolution in its conceptions, good, 
safe and comfortable. The idea of building a vacht-de-luxe. 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 




Main Saloon and Cupola, S. S. rrinzessin Victoria Luise. 



in the fullest sense of the word, however, to be put at the ser- 
vice of the public, is indeed revolutionary. It is unfair mere- 
ly to interpret this as a sort of logical outcome of the so- 
called "train-de-luxe/^ It reaches so endlessly far beyond 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 9 

everything which we have up to the present time known and 
acknowledged as luxurious means of travel, as do the seas 
which the yacht traverses. The true father of this yacht idea 
was no less a person than the German Emperor. From him 
came the first impulse to build a ship exclusively for pleasure 
trips, which should accommodate but a limited number of 
first-cabin passengers, should carry no freight and should in 
all its details be arranged for luxury and practical comfort, 
and where each foot of the broad spacious decks should be 
utilized for some form of amusement. This idea fascinated 
the Emperor to such an extent that he himself outlined the 
plans for the building and equipment of a ship of this type 
even to the minutest details, constantly keeping in mind his 
experiences on his yacht the "Hohenzollern.^^ Many of these 
imperial ideas seem actually to have been adopted on the 
"Prinzessin Viictoria Luise." 

Large windows have taken the place of the former loop- 
holes. An innovation which has been adopted are covered 
verandas which permit meals being served in the open air. 
Consideration has been taken of climatic conditions of the 
tropics and only lower berths exist in the exceptionally spac- 
ious cabins. These are so perfectly equipped and ventilated 
as to render the nights which must be spent therein most 
pleasant. For the rest, all the experience gained in the build- 
ing of large luxurious vessels has been used to best advantage. 
Magnificent drawing rooms, as well as a three-story dining 
room crowned with a truly artistic glass cupola, are the re- 
sult. All of this cannot find its equal even on the most 
famous yachts. Whoever has had the opportunity to inspect 
in New York harbor or at Newport a number of American 
yachts of this kind, will find that occasionally materials have 
been used for the equipment exceeding in costliness those 
of the "Prinzessin Yictoria Luise.^^ On the other hand, a 
5,000-ton ship offers possibilities for exercise on board, free- 
dom, and a variety of amusements which most naturally can 
not be had on the smaller ships. Herein even the "Hohenzol- 
lern" is no exception. Aside from the private apartments 
of the imperial couple, as well as the drawing room of the 
Empress, every one, to whom the mere fact that he is on board 



10 CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 

the yacht of the German Eaiiperor does not mean all and 
everything, must admit that for a longer trip the "Prinzessin 
Victoria Lnise" offers infinitely more than even this vessel 
Avhich most certainly has won the distinction of being a cri- 
terion as a pleasure yacht. 

All details are in perfect harmony. The service ren- 
dered so complicated through the frequent landings, is car- 
ried out in a manner which deserves all admiration. Not a 
loud word can be heard, no censuring, no commanding. From 
somewhere sounds a short whistle, and like the fabulous work 
of the hobgoblins, all is accomplished ^vith the absolute re- 
liability resulting from excellent discipline. On the very 
first day a feeling of relationship to the yacht is awakened 
which develops into familiarity. Despite any number of ideal 
hours spent on land, despite almost inconceivable charms and 
fascinations which we have experienced there, joyfully and 
gladly we return to our yacht. The land becomes the change- 
able and variable of this passing dream and on such a trip 
this floating hotel becomes the object of all our tender feel- 
ings, where for weeks we have no trunks to pack, no itiner- 
aries to study, and the nervousness connected with travelling 
does and can not take possession of us. 

The tables are always set, fresh beer is on tap at all 
times. No wish remains unfulfilled, no longing unsatisfied. 
We can escape to one of the upper decks if in a momentary 
mood we desire solitude, we can be jovial with the jolly, 
converse seriously with the serious. Day or night the heavens 
stand open to us. Those who desire to work — forsooth a rare 
exception — can find complete rest and quiet, the idler can 
readily become a virtuoso in this art of arts. 

It is therefore truly not astonishing if all this results 
in a necessity to gradually build a large navy of pleasure 
yachts. The "Meteor" followed the "Prinzessin Victoria 
Luise." Another successful attempt to bring yachts into even 
greater popularity. In its construction and equipment it 
is somewhat simpler than its predecessor, the "Victoria 
Luise," nevertheless built with all possible consideration for 
the utmost comfort. Moreover the cost of these pleasure 
trips has recently been so far reduced that it is almost a sav- 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 11 

ing of money if in j^reference to remaining at home we sail 
to where the world is most beautiful. 

The large renowned hotels of the continent are beginning 
seriously to fear their floating colleagues. Most justly so, 
for in addition to all the attractions our yachts have bor- 
rowed from them, comes the wonderful fascination of "ever 
onward/^ that marvelous feeling which lies in the illusion 
that the elem^ents are carrying us ahead. 

Again and again we must needs ask and wonder where 
the bounds lie for this new phase in the development of means 
of travel. We hardly dare permit our imagination a harm- 
less jest, ere it come true. Hanging gardens or horse races, 
skating rinks in winter and an artistic shore with the genu- 
ine dashing of the waves in summer, opera and concerts and 
variety shows, perhaps a bit of drawing-room literature or a 
bit of boudoir wisdom on board. Why not? How trifling in 
reality is that which to-day divides fact from imagination. 
A decade more and we will almost feel ashamed that we were 
unable to prophecy even more complicated things. But hu- 
manity will become freer, will completely cut loose from its 
native soil. The ocean will lose the terror which it still holds 
for many of the inlanders when they realize the marvelous 
fascination lying open to us while gliding across the glorious 
waters. 

Thus from the original purpose of such a tri]3, merely for 
pleasure's sake, grows the infinitely grander thought of bring- 
ing persons nearer, closer together in a manner which makes 
it easy for them to learn to understand, know and appreciate 
one another. This is, if we so desire, the great moral service 
which the yacht, the swimming hotel, and when we think of 
the new ocean giants, the swimming cities, are performing. 
The world assuredly has not grown smaller but the concep- 
tion of distances daily comes more and more under the cate- 
gory of things which have had their day. 



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The Peak of Teneriffe. 




Santa Cruz, Teneriffe. 



II. 

^The Harbor of Ponta Delgada — Gardens full of 
Mysteries — The Peak of Teneriffe — Sunday in 
Santa Cruz — Mountains that Pass in the Night. 

Nothing can be more deceiving than the ocean front of 
Southern cities. Behind its diverse colors are frequently hid- 
den poorly disguised decay and dirt^ which we call pictu- 
resque, without, however, really believing it. But wherever 
the colors have been retained in their original cleanness, have 
been finely toned down by the strong, glaring sun, and to a 
certain extent have been brought into perfect harmony with 
the background nature has placed there, the result is a most 
charming picture. While the "Prinzessin Victoria Luise^^ is 
elegantly turning and entering the harbor of Ponta Delgada 
the entire length of the city gradually unrolls before us, rising 
up against the beautiful curves of this hilly country. From 
the distance it glitters and glimmers like a new toy but just 
taken from its box. Surely no available shade of the rainbow 
was overlooked when their inhabitants attempted to give these 
truly characteristic little houses a cheerful exterior. On the 
old, sombre, gray walls of the harbor bright shining moss is 
luxuriantly growing. It covers the walls of rock upon which 
a portion of the city stands, like a radiant mantle of velvet. 
Over the entire island a bright, fresh green, the gift of spring, 
is sparkling against the dark, deep color of the Spanish lau- 
rel, majestic cedars, which spread out their branches like an 
imposing coronation robe, the cypresses and all the kinds of 
palms which outlive the winter. To the very summits the 
soil of the hills has been furrowed, ploughed and sowed, and 
upon the whole rests the fascination of great and manifold 
fruitfulness. Huge windmills are turning their wings to the 
tune of a fresh breeze, and seem to hover above hill and vale 
like mighty monster-birds. Veiled in a light mist, the higher 
mountain chains rise from the interior of the island. Char- 
acteristic of all is the conical shape which clearly indicates 
their volcanic origin. It is a truly hillocky world which 



14 CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 

si^reacls about Ponta Delgada 'and picturesquely embeds this 
bright colored little city between the green of the land and 
the deep-blue foaming spray of the waves splashing against 
the old gray walls of the breakwater. Later we wander 
through the streets of the city, and this, our first impression, 
is favorably strengthened. 

We enter through a marvelous old gate, pass churches re- 
vealing all the fantastic scroll work, the bizarre lines of a 
style for which nothing seemed sufficiently solemn that it 
could not be set forth thus gayly. We wander past palaces 
whose facades lead us to conjecture that centuries ago a gal- 
lant race of cavaliers and lovers lived behind them. Most of 
the time we walk between high walls. Behind them are hid- 
den the greatest beauties Ponte Delgada can boast of, its gar- 
dens full of mysterious, marvelous splendor. Even the art of 
garden architecture has recently been approached with new 
ideas. Nature must submit to strong violence if these at- 
tempts lare to be enforced upon it. In any one of these silent 
gardens we may see and admire what masterworks she pro- 
duces when permitted to do her own sweet will, and if we do 
not intrude upon her inspirations any more than is abso- 
lutely necessary for preservation. There behind the high 
walls she hides and guards almost jealously the whole proud 
aristocracy of centuries. Aside from those gardens open to 
the public, there are such which to enter we must have a 
"Sesame open." TVo strong peals iof a bell sound and re- 
sound, then for a short space of time there is silence, such 
silence that we almost hear our own thoughts come and go. 
Suddenly we distinguish shuffling feet on the other side of 
the wall. Then a voice utters unintelligible, hence mysteri- 
ous, words. Our guide answers in the same manner. Slow- 
ly, hesitatingly, a key is turned and, only just far enough 
tha^ we may pass through, a gate is opened, so gigantic a 
gate that next to it we look like dwarfs. The whole, strong, 
reflected splendor of the setting sun lies upon this garden; 
we could infinitely better call it a garden revery. Long rows 
of tall camellia trees, the perfumes of the sweet-smelling wis- 
taria mingles with that of the orange blossoms and the Portu- 
guese magnolia, which abounds in thousands. Then we plod 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 15 

our way tlirongh a maze of lianas and many climbing and 
creeping plants to a gigantic species of rubber trees, which in- 
voluntarily give rise to the wierdest dreams. Their tremen- 
dous roots descend into the earth like steep precipices. The 
eye is hardly able to reach the dull lustre of their crests, which 
we attempt again and again, only to be irretrievably lost in 




Ponta Del,^-ad;i, A/mcs. 

the labyrinths of their branches. Where is the beginning 
and where is the end of these marvelous ancient trees, which 
so absolutely overthrow all ideas we may have received throagh 
the paltry specimens of those other rubl)er trees, the pride of 
our winter gardens? Hesitatingly we move forward through 
the halo of solemnity which the shadows have spread over the 
entire place. Wherever we glance, we see tree-tops of that 
magnificent splendor which only age can bestow. With the ex- 
uberance of youth the dark, shining blossoms, on swaying 
branches, are boldly climbing to the lonely crests, adorning 
them like jewels witli their various-colored splendor. Here 



16 CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 

and there the rustling of camellias falling to the 
ground, camellias whose death hour had come. Somewhere 
the sweet voice of a little bird is sobbing their death hymn. 
We wander over soft, thick moss as silently as we would wan- 
der in a beautiful dream from which we are loathe to awake. 
The sun is sinking deeper and deeper, and in the growing 
dusk the garden is revealing all its mysteries, its secrets. Gi- 
gantic as are its trees, they must be and are full of stupefy- 
ing perfumes. But before we have learned to understand 
their language, their rustling and whispering, a gate is opened 
— only just far enough that we may pass out. We have been 
pushed into the Itrite, everyday world, and must again walk 
along its streets. 



The dim light of the very early morning is lying over 
the water. We feel the rising sun more than we can see it. 
In the distance, where we surmise the land, another sea is 
rising, a sea of floating clouds and mist, quickly flying along 
with the wind. Where, for instances, they are torn asunder 
mountain peaks appear, rough and rugged. Soon, very soon, 
they again join into a wall of clouds jealously guarding its 
secrets from us. A sharper breeze sets in. For moments we 
can follow the struggle between wind and clouds in deep 
suspense. With a bold assault the wind tears a broad, great 
gap in the mass of clouds and mist. High, high up in the 
air a broad mountain peak becomes visible in a white, shining 
light, which as first we cannot seem to understand. The 
white snow fields of this peak have received the morning 
greetings of the sun rising behind us. The illumiinated crest 
of the Peak of Teneriffe is set off against the dark color of 
the restlessly moving clouds with a truly artistic effect. Again 
and again, the nearer we draw to the coast, we are reminded 
of the stage. Valkyrie rocks appear, defiant, dark fortresses, 
castles of the gods, pitch dark ravines in which Alberichs and 
Fafners could have dwelled. Sharp-edged, rugged chains of 
mountains, behind them others arise whose peaks threaten to 
tear the very heavens asunder. Fourfold, these coulisses of 
Nature are in some places sliding together, and we watch and 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 17 

wonder with anxious suspense what will come to pass on this 
odd scene. But the stage remains silent and deserted. 

At the next turn we are opposite the village of Santa 
Cruz^ of which the predominant features are the two graceful- 
original towers of its two principal churches. The whole 
town appears to have been levelled out, and seemingly has 
no true analogy with the neighboring mountains. We see 
but scant vegetation, far from that Southern abundance 
which in this place we would be most justified to expect. 
The city itself is of a sober, variegated coloring. 
Even many colors joined together can produce a tir- 
ing, uninteresting effect. Again and again our eye returns 
to the mountain scenery. Instinctively we feel that it is the 
very best the island has to offer. Afterwards we almost re- 
gret that we were impudent enough to seek better things in 
the interior. 

Palm Sunday. The inhabitants are wearing their best 
clothes. In the cathedral we see Tom, Dick and Harry as- 
sembled. It is a large room of startling soberness. Even the 
centuries which it has survived can lend it no more interest. 
Cane benches are standing about without any order whatso- 
ever. Children are fighting on them. Or neighbors are quite 
cosily continuing their chat of the previous evening. All per- 
sons are kneeling on the ground in long rows and praying, 
but seemingly without deep devotion, for on Palm Sunday 
this little world displays all the novelties the spring has 
brought in mantillas and lace veils, all the new '^Tarisian" 
fashions imported from — anywhere. On both sides two com- 
panies of soldiers have taken their stand. In full-dress uni- 
form all of them, crossed belt and buttons glistening like a 
mirror. With head and heart these sturdy brown fellows are 
far away from the mass, which a young priest is reading in an 
abrupt iDusiness-like manner. When the hornist shrilly sounds 
the prescribed signals for the rituals with an almost impudent 
Traetaetaetae it sends a thrill of fright through the en- 
tire community. Then for a few moments reigns absolute 
quiet. We hear the dominus vobiscum of the priest pass 
over the bowed heads, which forsooth are soon close together 
again only to continue their worldly doings. A cross-fire of 



18 CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 

coquettish-loving glances begins under the shadow of the 
altar. The children, uncontrolled as the}^ are, are not amus- 
ing themselves in quite the quietest way possible. The pairs 
move closer together. It is truly glorious to kneel under 
God's wing — by twos. We see bnt few persons praying who 
are really alone with their prayers, their sorrows, their hopes. 
Otherwise we could readily believe that we have been re- 
moved to a club house where, for a change, a reception has 
been arranged in the honor of God, with Whom these people 
are the best of friends as long as they do not need Him, and 
Whom they but learn to fear slavishly and passionately when 
the hour of need has come. 

Once more the bell sounds on the altar, the shrill horn 
blows. The priest bestows his blessing, and with a noisy, 
jovial talkativeness the multitude rises and disperses. The 
companies march away. With clinking spurs, clattering sa- 
bres and heavy, noisy steps. For they feel that they are the 
true masters of the situation, even in the honse of God. The 
fair ones of S^anta Cruz crowd after them like a iflock of 
diverse-colored, glittering birds. Powder and rouge, to be 
sure, are merely hnman virtues, without which even that 
l)eauty does not consider herself perfect who assuredly needs 
neither the one nor the other. With the solemnity passed 
down to them from their proud forefathers, and which in 
reality so little befits these sons, the citizens appear, wishing 
again to let the eternally feminine pass muster before the 
gates of the cathedral. Across the square, not further than 
a stone's-throw, the soldiers are lounging about in front 
of the barracks. We almost feel how little would be necessary 
to make these two antagonists clash, who for centuries are 
continuing the same struggle of the proud wearer of the uni- 
form against the ordinary civilian for the favor of the fair 
ones. But the bells are solemnly and loudly ringing in the 
peace of Palm Sunday. 

Over Laguna a well-built road leads in ascending curves 
to Tachorante, which receives far more praise than it deserves. 
After the first turns, which rise very steeply, we are at so 
great a height that land and sea are lying at our feet ! It is 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 19 

not merely a phrase if we claim here to recognize the scenery 
of near-by Africa. Flat, dirty white houses, with fiat roofs, 
artistically interrupt the sombre solitude of a country which, 
has but little green to ])oast of beside the endless cactusses, 
with their grotesque ugliness, which abound in such quanti- 
ties. Santa Cruz below us, despite its real soberness, looks 
like a veritable Fata Morgana. The slim "Prinzessin Vic- 
toria Luise,^^ far out in the harbor, is rocking on the waves 




Seven Cities, Azores. 

like a true "Maiden From Afar.'' From Laguna on, the en- 
tire picture changes as with one stroke. A spring landscape 
full of the soft charm of Italy. Fruit trees in full bloom, 
flowers bordering the meadows, the meadows themselves teem- 
ing with rich, red earth. This mild softness soon becomes 
very tiring. All the more so, as a street leads through this 
idyl which generates that same dust, penetrating into all 
pores, which has brought the African roads into such bad 
repute. The Peak of Teneriffe at closer range is and re- 
mains but one of many as soon as it loses the certain special 
charm which all land assumes wdien seen from the ocean. We 
are doubly glad this time to return to the steamer. The sup- 



20 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 



position has changed to certainty. What we could see from 
our decks was the very best. In every possible light. The 
■pale moon is shining into gorges and ravines. Here and 
there the fine mists of the evening are settling over the peaks. 
The wind has ceased entirely so that the mists seem gradually 
to be gliding down the mountain sides. The very peaks seem 
to be wandering. They move — move. Constantly new per- 
spectives are being revealed. New^ and yet they seem famil- 
iar. Almost like the shifting scenery in Parsifal when it 
moves backwards. We again hear the water beating against 
the keel more loudly than before. In the uncertain light of 
a crescent moon we must stare hard into the night before we 
notice that it is we^ — ^our ship almost soundlessly riding into 
the night, into the open seas. Once more, for the last time, 
the entire chain of this wildest romantic becomes visible, ow- 
ing their queer shapes to the subterranean fires of the earth. 
Then crest after crest, peak after peak, ridge after ridge, dis- 
appear in that unfathomable darkness from which we saw 
them emerge in the early morning light. Valkyrie rocks, 
defiant dark fortresses, castles of the gods, pitch dark ravines, 
in which Alberichs and Fafners could have dwelled. 




Harbor of Santa Cr 



Spanish Soldiers in Santa Cruz. 



III. 

^Oddities and Possibilities in Madeira — In Bullocks 
and Basket Sleds — The Fascinating Power of the 
^''Millreis'' — Strolling in the Mountains — ''^ Santa 
Anna " an Example of Perfect Nouveaux Art 
— Day-dream Wishes. 

Funchal, Madeira^s capital and seajDort, would possess 
no end of fascination for strangers even were it less embedded 
in beauty. It is rich in oddities^ rich in possibilities for pur- 
chase^ and^ above all, blessed with a currency which readily 
permits the "millionaire feeling" to take possession of us. 
Its oddities, moreover, are of the kind which appeal to us as 
thoroughly amusing. The means of transportation we find 
there involuntarily produce the impression that they have 
been constructed with the sole purpose of affording strangers 
a great deal of pleasure. Yet, bullocks and basket-sleds, as 
well as hammocks, have arisen m.erely from necessity. A 
hilly city throughout, paved with those half-round, small 
stones which the words "cat's-heads'- so admirably describe. 
Moreover, through constant use rubbed down to a state of 
smoothness and slipperiness which necessitates a broad, firm 
base on any means of conveyance in order to safely bring it 
uphill or downhill. Thus the sledge runners became the 
ground-form then easily adapted to the different purposes. 
In the city itself good-natured oxen trod along in front of the 
vehicles, a basket carriage in which four passengers can be 
comfortably seated. Eesting on strong springs even in the 
steepest places jerking and lurching are almost entirely 
avoided. The speed to be sure is not marvelous. But who 
on Maderia can have the desire to move ahead rapidly, there 
where we see each moment depart with the keenest regret 
knowing it can never return again. The basket-sled is of an 
entirely different type. In ihese we whiz, almost fly down to 
the city from the villages lying in the mountains. It is 
steered by two guides who hold back the sledge on the right 



22 CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 




In the Interior of Madeira. 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 23 

and left sides by means of strong rojoes, so that it depends en- 
tirely upon their strength and aptness whether we land in the 
gutter or nicely remain on the street. But we can rely upon 
both these qualities with absolute confidence. Every muscle 
is strained, and with that technical skill, the result of long 
practise, these, in most cases young boys, run next to the 
sledge even if it is a case of turning a sharp corner in the 
wildest gallop. Then they bend the upper part of their body 
far, far back, let their muscles play, and a joyous laugh 
spreads over their entire face, not without a tinge of mis- 
schievousness, at the screams of fright which so often come 
from charming mouths when one of these dangerous corners 
comes into view. A danger — the fascination of which is height- 
ened through the suddenness with which it appears and dis- 
appears before we have quite been able to realize its existence. 
A danger — greeted with a scream and ending in a hearty 
laugh. Hardly have we recovered our breath and looking 
back see the mountain path we just came flying down, we 
are doubly glad not only to feel all the bones in our body, but 
to feel that they are Avhole and in place. We decide to offer 
the gods a libation, this more as a welcome excuse to taste that 
world-famous wine which carries the name of the island 
throughout all lands. 

It is still an unsolved secret why our power of resistance 
to the very same enjoyments is so infinitely greater in the 
place of their origin than at our own table. The wine on the 
Rhine, the beer in Pilsen, the cigars in Havana, can be en- 
joyed in quantities, even by novices in all these delicacies of 
a gourmand, which at home only the experienced may indulge 
in. It seems as if the good spirits of each place were exert- 
ing a secret spell that we may entirely surrender ourselves to 
the joys of the moment without a single thought for the com- 
ing penitance. Madeira, too, is charmed with such good spirits 
who watch over us and permit the heavy, sweet juices which 
spring from this blessed earth to intoxicate us only so far 
as can add to our complete happiness. Only so far as may be 
of advantage to the merchants who are at hand whether we 
wish them or not, with a thousand and one temptations. Laces 
and embroideries, fine filigree jewelry in gold and silver, bas- 



24 CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 

ket and wiekerwork of all kinds constitute the principal temp- 
tations which it is so difficult to resist. Material and work 
being of an excellent quality the prices do not even appear 
high because the salesmen are wise enough to adopt exclusive- 
ly the English currency for these purposes. If offered in reis, 
forsooth^ through the first fright many a purchase would 
come to naught. Next to the shells of the wild nations^ there 
is surely no more amusing money than reis. It would be 
psychologically interesting to discover whether this fraction 
of a '^^rational" money possibly owes its existence to a con- 
scious megalomania. With the utmost ease we give away 
thousands to beggars^ for a single meal we pay in four figured 
sums. To use a round hundred thousand in purchases can be 
the work of a well utilized hour. When we receive the hotel 
bill Yandervilt illusions overcome us. The postage for the 
picture postal cards^ which we unwisely swore to send, far 
surpasses the average yearly income of any citizen of the 
middle class. We learn to squander these enormous sums 
very quickly, just as soon as we realize that it is merely the 
question of a joke which we can perpetrate with and upon 
ourselves. Here, too, of course, the lucky American takes the 
lead who, with a single haughty dollar^ can swallow up thou- 
sands of reis. 

Elven those whose time on Madeira is limited to one 
single day should penetrate into the interior of the island at 
least a little way. Hard as it may seem, they should tear 
themselves away from the purchases though they seem half- 
gifts. For here, too, when the summing up of accounts begins 
amounts result at least double the sum we originally would 
have deemed very reckless to spend. Eather take the funicu- 
lar railway, quickly and safely climb the 2,000 feet to a spot 
which offers the most suitable starting point for a stroll into 
the mountains. Here we learn to understand why physicians 
and patients, convalescents and healthy, all with equal enthus- 
iasm, sing the praises and laud the wonders of this balmy air. 
The many travellers who do not get far beyond the boundary 
of Funchal, do the island and themselves the same degree of 
injustice. With the paths to be sure which for hours relent- 
lessly continue to be the same stony^ slippery ones, we must 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 



25 



cheerfully or sullenly become reconciled. Otherwise we can 
bemoan but one fact and that is our inability to look forwards 
and backwards at the same time. In front of us the hills 
adorned to their very crests with the fresh green of sprino^ 
and the deepest, richest colors. We see mountain formations 
which remind us of the Alps before they rise to their highest 
heights. Eugged, majestic or threatening as their aspect 




may be^ it is again and again transformed into a fascinatingly 
original picture through the blossoming and fragrance per- 
vading everything. Foaming torrents are dashing over glist- 
ening rocks bordered with luxuriant diverse-colored splendor. 
Dark gorges overgrown with roses to their very darkest depths 
or clad in shining ivy. Creepers climbing on the finest stems 
to anywhere and everywhere. Between all and behind us ap- 
pears the everlasting sea with its endless color effects. The 
heavens are spreading over all as if to reflect and perfect the 
lightest as well as the darkest tones of this beautiful picture. 
Above us a sun which gilds every poor, neglected precipice 



26 CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 

and glimmers and glitters on each single beauty with a truly 
triumphant joy. The higher we climb the more closely the 
mountains seem to move together. From time to time, the 
background, the deep blue sea disappears. We almost forget 
where we are wandering until perchance at the next turn a 
narrow strip of sea lends the old picture new splendor. The 
true fascination of this stroll lies in the picture, which is 
presented by the interweaving and intermingling of the end- 
less expanse of the wonderful ocean and the gradual rising 
of the mountain chains. Hill tops bending down to the sea 
and an ocean threatening at the first rising of the waters to 
storm the very crests. Whatever lies between them remains 
immeasurable space for both — space which the human eye 
can master at one single glance. 

To prophesy or wish to prophesy the further future for 
a place of fame^ a title Madeira to-day undoubtedly deserves, 
seems somewhat senseless. Yet I would like to believe that the 
renown of to-day means but the beginning of a development 
which from every point of view seems inevitable. Here, too, 
in the first place the greatest importance falls to the problem 
of distances. A regular steamship service of the Hamburg- 
American Line to begin next winter, will adopt Madeira as 
the center station of the route Naples-New York. This must 
develop into a highway for both continents which assuredly 
will not fail to be duly appreciated and utilized. It is inter- 
esting to observe on Madeira, even at present, that the Ger- 
man-English rivalry which we so frequently come in contact 
with in other spheres^ has taken the form of a struggle for 
the hotel predominance for the future. Until a few years 
ago the English had broadly and with all their stubbornness 
completely controlled the island as far as strangers were con- 
cerned. All that could be acquired of important territory, 
vital concessions was English. Smaller German enclaves for 
a special set of patrons was all that could exist. But the 
average stranger with certainty fell into the hands of the Eng" 
lish. This has considerably changed since as a result of Ger- 
man enterprise a hotel, "Santa Anna," has been erected 
which would justly create a sensation anywhere. It 
was to be anticipated that the new decorative tendency would 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 27 

not fail to exert its influence on hotel architecture and dec- 
oration. We must admit that even in the large cities the gen- 
eral run of these modern hotel interiors is not much to boast 
of. What they ofl'er is primarily that misunderstood and 
above^ all cheap imitation of nouveaux art furniture, carpets 
and wall papers which managed to spring into life with such 
rapidity as to compromise the original and lower its artistic 




YiUa. Amelia, Madeira. 

importance. In "Santa Anna/^ however, the problem has 
been happily solved, and with laudable respect to the genuine- 
ness and excellent quality of all materials used, to create 
rooms for living and representative purposes. These fortun- 
ately permit us completely to forget a certain atmosphere 
which usually pervades hotels. On the other hand however, 
all due consideration has been shown the necessary dimen- 
sions and dem^ands of a hotel. The newly built "Villa Ama- 
lia'^ contains only bedrooms. The idea of completely separat- 
ino: these from drawing and dinino- rooms — which here lie 



28 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 



far distant in an extensive park — ^must be welcomed merely 
from the standpoint that thus at last complete rest and quiet 
are possible. Also in every otlier respect it has been possible 
to adapt all the details of the house to this main idea and to 
erect a building in which purpose and beauty go hand in 
hand with rare harmony. After the very first season the 
necessity has arisen to build a twin house, to be followed by 
even more on grounds sufficiently large and princely to per- 
mit of a whole colony of hotel villegiatures. 

The exquisiteness of the architecture applied in the in- 
terior does not reach its height in the rooms as such. The 
technical constructions, those for bathing, lighting and heat- 
ing purposes, must be defined as absolutely elegant if the word 



Jf wSr' f I M 


BiB wk' HIK 


f^ 






m 



Interior Views, Santa Anna, Madeira. 

in this connection did not mean too little. It is certainly 
gratifying that one is constantly becoming more convinced 
how essential it is that those things which a short time ago 
were considered as of secondary are and must be treated as 
of primary importance. We can wander about the park for 
hours without encountering the slightest repetition in the 
beautiful pictures presented by scenery and garden. Incom- 
parable and indescribable is the vision from the terrace which 
through its dominating height commands the view of a large 
portion of the coast and the interior of the island. The very 
city of Funchal, the harbor rest at its feet. 

If we look sharply we can discover a small peninsula ex- 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 



29 



tending far into the sea and on it amid a park of almost im- 
penetrable green^ amid palms belonging to the most famous 
of their species, lies the villa in which the Empress of Austria 
so dearly loved to dwell. This spot of perfect peace is now 
to be transformed into the battle-field on which the decisive 
victory of the German against the English hotels is to be 
won. A new, marvelous hotel, a casino, pleasure palaces on 
the grandest style, are to be built in the tropical beauty of this 
park so that both will rise in and complete their value. Here 
an opportunity is offered to the imagination of artists, who, 
taking all the liberties modern art permits, can design and 
erect buildings, something so rarely crowned with success, 
which appear as the logical continuation of the scenery. 
Above all we would wish these artists to possess the finest, most 
intimate understanding for the originality of this scenery 
and the artistic power of composition which does not per- 
chance treat such a landscape as a background, which to a 
certain extent may be neglected, but as the predominating ele- 
ment finding clear and tangible expression in each individual 
detail of the buildings. Perhaps all these are but day-dream 
wishes which must arise when from our great height we look 
down upon this park-paradise. But be this as it may, how 
gratifying it would be if the future of Madeira would be in- 
augurated with an artistic success which even the English 
competition would have to acknowledge as being specifically 
German. 




Bullocks, a Madeira Con\e)ance. 



30 CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 



^HI^I^^BI^^^^^^^K f ''''"''ill Willi ipiiii III" iBi *S!jiii|^^^^B|i|l|| ** s^bl 


m^t^^^'^^fi^MM'mm 






*Wi 





His Majesty, Emperor William ot Germany, Entering Tangiers. 



IV. 

\Why the Mules of Tangier s are Astonished — A Stage 
for the Fabulous and Fantastic — T^he Same Way^ 
the Same Step Since Centuries — Market Day in 
Tangier s — In the Arabian Cafe — The Wedding of 
a Wealthy Moorish Woman — The Melody of the 
Will-o-the-Wisp. 

Since the German Emperor's visit to Tangiers the stream 
of international globe-trotters is thronging there in continu- 
ous succession. The capital of Morocco has suddenly become 
interesting. In long caravans and mounted on donkeys, day 
after day, we can see those sight-seers who invariably follow 
the latest sensation, crowding through the narrow, winding 
streets. With loud, joyful Arrah, Arrah, old and young drive 
the mules forward which are shaking their heads in aston- 
ishment at the demands suddenly being made upon their 
capabilities and power of endurance. 

Undoubtedly a great portion of the enthusiasm de- 
veloped for the German friend and protector can be traced to 
the flourishing business caused by the enormous influx of 
strangers, the first noticeable local political result. The 
mule drivers are untiring in their descriptions of the entry 
of the Emperor. Something which in itself was beyond a 
doubt a veritable revelation of wild Oriental pomp, splendor 
and magnificence, in the still wilder manner of fantastic elab- 
oration almost assumes the character of one of those fairy 
tales of the great Calif, for which this city, whose every nook 
and corner is almost an embodiment of originality, seems the 
true and most appropriate stage-setting. The fabulous and 
fantastic is enacted here all the day, in the light of a sun 
penetrating with a truly marvelous power of illumination into 
all those dark, winding recesses and corners in their en- 



32 CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 

tirety called streets. It has neither a beginning nor an end. 
We never know what the next turn may bring. Only the 
hnman beings, as decoration, remain unchanged and un- 
changeable, a medley of indescribable variety and diversity of 
color. Sombre and deep are these colors, and into them plays 
the pure white of the women's garbs and the mantles of the 
Bedouins. Compared with the degeneracy we meet at every 
step in the Arabian quarter of Algiers, even the beggar of 
Tangiers, melodramatically lamenting his distress on the 
streets, seems to be an aristocrat. 

The infection from foreign rule, always and inevitably 
leading to the decay of a nation's distinctive characteristics, 
has gained but little ground in Tangiers. We can readily be- 
lieve that the whole unbroken wildness of this race, so proud 
of its physical perfection, reigns supreme in the interior 
of the country, when we see the comparative purity it could 
and did maintain in this, its principal seaport. It is a re- 
markable phenomenon that a nation should succeed in this 
preservation if we consider that but a gun-shot from Europe 
it has been exposed to the constant reciprocal effect of the 
"blessings of civilization." We must naturally exclude the 
corps of guides who have acquired the same loquaciousness, 
cunning and talent for boasting, we could encounter anywhere 
on the continent, enhanced, to be sure, by the decided humor 
which alone lies in their way of treating the international 
languages and their manners — a combination of subjugation 
and pathos, which they employ in ithe hope of inducing us to 
buy from them every, even the slightest attention. 

Tangiers was and is by no means in need of the imperial 
advertisement. In itself it is one of the most remarkable 
sights lying open to us on our so smoothly working itineraries. 
It seems to arise from the ocean like a gigantic play-toy carved 
out of an enormous white block with loving care. Then bat- 
tlements appear in sight, densely studded with good-natured, 
harmless old cannons, which do not even try to make a for- 
midable impression. Minarets in their picturesque slimness 
stand out against the medley of other buildings. Jagged 
walls loom up and mighty gates. As we draw nearer the 
white city is lost to us, to be replaced by another, a city of 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 



33 



soft^ delicate colors. Tlie lightest of pinks, the lightest of 
yellows^ but above all the azure blue of the African skies, are 
the predominating colors of the structures. To the left of 
the city proper, along the harbor wharfs, stretches the new 
European quarter in all its appropriate soberness. It seems 
like a veritable derision when just here we see the caravans 




City Gates, Tangiers. 

of heavily laden camels drawing by, wending their way to 
the interior — the same way, the same step since centuries. 

Far out on the roads, which become unapproachable on 
stormy days, the ship is riding .at anchor. On rocking boats 
and accompanied by those penetrating shrieks and screams 
which easily drown the lapping of the fwaves, we are rowed 
toward the pier, projecting far, far into the water, the latter 
being one of the French acquisitions;. Soon we make the ac- 
quaintance of the next, the custom house, where timorous 
attempts are made, legally or illegally, to impose taxes upon 



34 CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 

the stranger that he may at last have the privilege of setting 
foot on land. Half the population is on its feet. The people 
do not offer the slightest resistance to the efforts of the officers 
of the law to scatter them, but in the very next second they 
are again closely crowded together, only to surround the 
stranger like a fabulous body with a hundred heads and two 
hundred hands, and to value the booty which he, if Allah 
wills, can, may or does represent. There is a remarkable con- 
trast between their noisy, tireless manner of speaking and the 
dignified placidity of their gestures. Apparently, here, they 
battle only with words, maim one another with wildly flaming 
eyes. 

Eanged on the walls of the street sit the philosophers^, 
cowering and contemptuously, or perhaps lazily, gazing into 
vacancy, possibly perceiving far weightier matters revealed 
only to them. Thus they silently sit for many hours. Final- 
ly, if the spirit so moves them, they hesitatingly spealc few 
but solemn words. Their true art, however, always consists 
in silence, which can mean everything or nothing, which re- 
mains forever obscure whether it be the heights of wisdom or 
the densest ignorance. 

Our way wends upwards midst a wealth of artistic themes 
which, despite their massiveness, act iso strongly in every de- 
tail that long after it comes back to us in each particular. 
It seems as if the extraordinary clearness of the air enabled 
us to see differently, more perfectly. It is almost impossible 
to stand quietly, even for a moment, in these narrow alleys. 
Touching elbows, we are pushed forward until the streets 
widen out and gradually open into a square, which seems vast 
after the cramped space to which we have just been limited. 

Thousands of people standing, cowering, sitting, dancing, 
howling or lost in stolid indifference fill this square, together 
"with their horses and wagons, mules and tents. It is market 
day in Tangiers — moreover, Easter market — and there have 
assembled here vast multitudes of people from the interior, 
most of whom probably come here only on this occasion. 
This gives us an opportunity to take in at one glance the life 
and customs of those tribes which have but recently been the 
subject of endless discussion. If we have reached a favorable 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 



35 



point of observation and attempt to range our senses in the 
confusion before us, we are constantly diverted by the pictu- 
resqueness of the group in its entirety. Thousands of bur- 
nooses draped in a thousand different fashions. Turbans 
and turbans, each appearing to be wound in a different man- 
ner. Every shade is represented, from the deep black of the 
Soudan negroes to the light brown of the noble Arabs. The 




Tangiers, from the Sea. 

women are gathered in long rows, their sparking eyes, the prin- 
cipal part of their beauty, are all which is not hidden to us by 
their veils. Full-blood, prancing horses are led into the square. 
Kearby, patiently walk the donkeys, withered, worn and so 
fieshless that we constantly marvel at their remarkable 
strength and endurance. Magicians, snake-charmers, singing 
dancers, form the centres of attraction of the densely crowded 
circles. Men with flowing white beards telling fairy tales, the 
very image of those who filled the dreams of our childhood, 
are squatting on the ground surrounded by dignified men, 
who with their inevitable cigarette or "hashish" pipe are lis- 



36 CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 

tening in wrapt attention. Wares^, primarily natural prod- 
ucts, are massed, piled up either on the ground or on straw 
mats. Camels are couched in front of the tents^ almost mo- 
tionless.^ blinking at the sun with tired, dull eyes. Above 
everything quivers something resembling the turmoil of bat- 
tle, the agitation of fanaticism, the concomitant of riot. And 
all this much ado about nothing, for in reality it is merely a 
question of buying provisions for the next week, or perchance 
to gather news which may likewise last for a week. 

Bordering on the upper boundary of the market place 
is a new quarter now in process of erection, containing the 
villas of the diplomats and the Europeans. These buildings, 
with intentional coquetry and their partially successful at- 
tempt to adapt themselves to the cheerfulness of the scenic 
picture, on market days at least, appear as untimely and out 
of place as possible. Conditions of the most primitive cul- 
ture, which evidently have been maintained with few modifica- 
tions for centuries, placed next to the results of a state of over- 
civilization, cannot be acknowledged as proper neighbors, not- 
withstanding the strong fascination of great contrasts. We 
would not be astonished should the generally harmless im- 
pulsiveness of the masses go astray on some market day and 
threaten to storm this uncongenial neighborhood. 

Leaving the market the road leads into the open country. 
A hilly country of great charm comes into view, enhanced by 
a superabundance of gay flowers. Wild imknown species at- 
tract our attention by their splendor of form and color. Per- 
fume pervades the air, but not the heavy, intoxicating odors 
which are so frequently met with in the Orient, but rather 
fresh, invigorating, full of the charm of a glorious spring. 
Here dwell the various tribes, entirely distinct and separated 
through their manners and customs, readily distinguishable 
by the cut of their hair and beard; they increase in wildness 
as we approach the interior. The territory around Tangiers 
which foreigners can travel with perfect safety has become a- 
comparatively limited one. 

In the evening we are accompanied into the streets by a 
diversified escort. Mustapha, the prototype of an Arabian 
Figaro, omnipresent and apparently omnipotent, heads the 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 37 

procession. Lantern carriers precede and follow us. In spite 
of the full moon, the darkness in the narrow alleys is deep 
and threatening. Although our expedition is quite harmless, 
it assumes a formidable and romantic appearance. Silently 
we glide along the walls, each one of us, to be sure, conscious 
that, after all, we are taking part in a comedy. We would 
present a fit ensemble scene for an operette laid in the Orient. 




Main Street, Tangiers. 

One act would have to be played in the Arabian Cafe. For 
not even the most expert stage-manager could provide a more 
suitable and original interior. The guests are lounging 
about, surrounding the orchestra. Weird music fills the air, 
strange rhythms, occasionally a semblance of melody. Two 
violins, one with five strings, are rested and bowed upon the 
knee. Quaintly shaped lutes, tambourines and guitars join 
in the sing-song chorus. A strong odor of steaming, sweet 
coffee permeated the air. We sip it with a feeling akin to 



38 CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 

reverence, as though in reality it were a potion of sweet ob- 
livion. Fine lines of smoke from cigarettes and hashish, 
the latter being smoked out of long, artistic pipes with tiny 
bowls, slowly rise to the low ceiling. Many of the guests ap- 
pear as though hypnotized by song and melody ; they sit with 
wide-open mouths and stare and stare. Others approach and 
join the chant with harsh, unmusical voices, a music seem- 
ing to demand this very harshness. The tambourine beats 
faster and faster, which quite characteristically takes the lead. 

Four typical figures with crossed legs lean against the 
side wall of the room. Motionless and stolid, and yet seem- 
ingly perfectly happy. For as the music reaches its zenith 
of wildness an expression resembling complete satisfaction 
lights up their countenances. Frequently they sway their 
heads slightly, or open their mouths, revealing ugly yellow 
teeth, acting as if they desired to be imbued with something 
blissfully rapturous. During the intermission they seem to 
collapse, all about them becomes limp and old, only to be 
enlivened as the music recommences, and then to listen in 
silence. On the strangers who intrude upon them even 
here they do not dei2:n to cast a single glance of con- 
tempt. Different in this respect, however, are the skilled 
hucksters, who, passing through the room, endeavor with un- 
tiring activity and mysterious suggestions to sell their wares, 
primarily weapons. Of each we are assured that they have 
been actors in at least a dozen murderous adventures. 

On the street an even more striking scene awaits us — the 
wedding of a wealthy Moorish woman. Mounted on a mag- 
nificent steed, caged in a box which completely obscures her 
from view, she begins her trip through the entire city. Music 
of all kinds, lutists and drummers, accompany her with in- 
describable clamor. A long cavalcade of dancing and chant- 
ing torch-bearers, relatives and friends follow her in their 
most costly and picturesque garments. After a long pilgrim- 
a2:e the bride is brought to the home of the bridegroom. 
There, for the first time, he lifts her veil, only heartlessly to 
let it drop should her beauty not be to his liking. The more 
monev, the more noise. Into the quiet moonlit night it re- 
sounds through the silent streets. Only the perpetual, un- 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 



39 



changing jhythm hammers, shrieks and groans. Whenever 
we may hope the end has come we are doomed to disappoint- 
ment. 

Thus the greater part of the night passes. Unable to 



¥^W W- 




T anglers. 



find sleep, we restlessly arise and peer into a night of mild 
and peaceful beauty. Here at last the phrase of the silver 
moon floating in blue ether is appropriate. The pinnacles 
and towers of this old fortified city, the bold arches of its 



40 CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 

mighty gates, battlements and half-ruinous walls, loom up 
into the night as if built of ivory and jewels. In long, grace- 
ful curves the surf beats against the shores, waves of sapphires, 
their crests a crown of diamond foam. Here with wide-open 
eyes we could dream the most sublime dream of our lives 
were it not for the music of this Arabian wedding cruelly 
interposing like a hideous demon. At the most unexpected 
times, and where we least surmise it, it breaks forth anew. 
In the zigzag and labyrinths of the city we never know from 
whence the clamor will come. The hours pass. The morn- 
ing dawns in soft colors. Unceasingly the same melody, like 
an accursed will-o^-the-wisp, quivers above the city. Let us 




Suburb of Tangiers. 

hope that the bridegroom did not on this occasion drop the 
veil, and that it was an act of vengeance from which even 
we, the unconcerned, must needs suffer. But if this was not 
the case, the patience of him who was awaiting must have 
been as stoical as that generally ascribed to the Oriental. 
With the break of day the din of the wedding procession ceases 
at last, almost abruptly. We are again confronted by the 
phenomenon that this unexpected silence affects us more irri- 
tatingly and annoyingly than the most cruel noise. From the 
nearby minaret there floats the call of the Muezzin bidding 
the faithful to prayer. The faithless, however, seek their rest 
with confusion in their mind. 



^The Threetowncity Algiers — Mustapha Superieure — 
Under Burning Heavens — The Piquancy of the 
Forbidden — A Pompous Mass in the Cathedral — 
Where the Faithful Stand in Deep Prayer — Phe 
Noise and Bustle of the Old City. 

The threetowncity of Algiers seems to l)e the product 
of repeatedly violent mixtures of Orient and Occident, the 
unrest of civilization, and the power of persistence of that 
truly not enviable bliss which feels itself happiest in filth 
and dirt. Mustapha superieure, city of villas and hotels, 
rises above the new and old city, the European and the 
Arabian quarters, voluptuous, decked with flowers, like an 
unchaste beauty molded into the hilly country, which as out- 
ermost spur of the snow-covered heights of the iVtlas and the 
Djurjura descends to the very boundary of the city. Con- 
structed of glittering white marble, adorned with far pro- 
jecting, horseshoe-shaped arcades, and crowned with phan- 
tastic cupolas and towers, the residences of the European 
and the Arabian nobility lie amid their glimmering, glisten- 
ing gardens. A perfume arises from these gardens laden with 
fragrance which accompanies the wanderer for miles and 
miles, completely bewitching his senses. The open country 
about him is another larger garden, God's garden, full of 
wild flowers of the wildest beauty, unknown forms and colors, 
which we have never seen before, wdiich we can never, never 
forget. We would be strongly tempted to speak of a color 
madness in which nature here finds joy and pleasure. Or pos- 
sibly, our senses of a Western soberness are too much dulled 
to withstand this storm of beauty. 

The road ascends in broad serpentines, constantly leading 
into more tempting, more fascinating beauty. The land glit- 
ters in its robe of green, a haze of blue covers the entire 



42 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 



ocean, and one marble structure next to the other gleams in 
pure white. But this triad of colors is buried under the cas- 
cades of wildest variegated colors which seem to cover ever}^ 
foot of earthy seem to pour down on us from every crevice in 
the rocks, from every branch of every tree. The very air 
seems to be dyed with these same rich hues and playing the 
glorious colors of the setting sun, draws a mantle of harmon- 
ious splendor about the city below — this city of curious con- 




In Kabylic, Algiers. 

tradictions. The broad, sober quays, straight as an arrow, the 
boulevards built in the spirit of Hausmann, the new quarters 
in which a startlingiy distorted nouveaux-art predominates, 
the Arabian quarters, for the human eye impenetrably mas- 
sive conglomeration, the fortifications of Kasbah crowned 
with walls, the widest places and the narrowest slums into 
which the sun never shines^ everything that otherwise ap- 
pears white and gray and monotonous, is now arrayed in 
splendor as if it were really possible that spring could make 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 43 




Mosque Sidi-Abderhaman, Algiers. 



44 CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 

even dead walls, decayed stones bloom. Purple tinted and 
gold-rimmed sails are quickly flying past. Smoke-stacks and 
masts in the harbor below seem as if worked of the finest 
metals, each single rope seems of colored silk. Eed, yellow, 
violet, tlie heavens are burning in flames which a light breeze 
is driving towards the city, behind which a wall of purple 
clouds is rismg. With one miraculous throb all the glitter- 
ing treasures have risen to the surface of the waters which 
since thousands of years have been buried in their deepest 
depths. It seems as if they were trying to darken the sun 
with their quivering lustre, the sun now dipping into the 
same waters, its lowest rim like melted gold. But nothing 
whatsoever can decrease the splendor, the color charm of the 
flowers still sparkling even in the quickly aDproaching dusk 
with that power all their own which needs neither aerial 
images, nor borrowed, reflected lights and shadows to be fabul- 
ously, fascinatingly iDeautiful. 

Excluding Mustapha superieure which in its style can 
be considered as complete, Algiers seems like a veritable tri- 
umph in "a little of everything." The European quarter 
which shows the painfully orderly soberness of a well-gov- 
erned seaport, next to a provincial imitation of all that is 
"Parisian," is swarming with Arabs, MoorS', Turks, Span- 
iards, Jews, who seem to have stepped from the Old Testa- 
ment, in all the variety of thir Oriental garbs. These, too, to 
a certain extent, have lost their nationalism. Particularly 
among the Arabs something akin to "swells" have sprung into 
existence. Among the wealthy we frequently find costly 
and sumptuous fabrics, coquettishly draped, together with 
very conspicuous colors. In the evenings when we see these 
sitting about in "Cafes," in the finest hotels, flirting or parad- 
ing on the Corso, their breasts adorned with decorations, their 
garb appears more like a costume which has lost its right of 
existence and can come into consideration merely from an 
ornamental point of view. In their ideas just these better 
classes have become a critical cross between East and West up- 
on whom there can be little reliance in any direction. The 
throng of people in the streets of Algiers, especially on holi- 
days, leaves little room for dissatisfaction on the part of ob- 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 



45 



servers. In vain we seek the originality and primitiveness 
which in Tangiers we meet at every step. Like well drilled 
figurants to whom the task has been assigned to act their own 
past, these masses throng through the streets in which to a 
great extent not even one single stone has been left as a 
landmark of this past. Even in this very ^'halfness^^ it is 
still a truly fascinating picture in which the motion is amply 
provided for through the dramatic agility of hands and fin- 




■ Tomb ot a Marabout, Algiers. 



ger-tips. Every now and then soldiers appear, from the na- 
tive Zouaves to the Cavalry, whose marvelous boot-trousers 
figure in so many operettes and vaudevilles. At last the 
civilians become visible, men and women, with a decidedly 
imitated splendor of French elegance. The women reveal a 
unmistakable tinge of that easy placidity which they have 
learned from their Oriental sisters. These are still veiled with- 
out really being so — only just sufficient veil to retain the pic- 
quancy of the forbidden. Moreover with their large, tired 
eyes they examine the richly laden, well decorated show-win- 
dows with the same expert thoroughness as the African-Al- 
gierian-Parisian. 

It is assuredly interesting that the best examples of 



46 CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 

Arabian art in architecture are standing close together in the 
heart of the European quarter. We are almost astonished 
to find that at least some of these, above all the two principal 
mosques, have remained absolutely untouched. Two towers 
have been added to a third mosque which in its construction 
is by far the finest, thus transforming it into a cathedral, 
though each single nook and corner loudly demonstrates 
against its present designation. The interior is marvelously 
decorative and its almost chaste marble arabesques, its orna- 
mented and scrolled texts belonging to a totally different 
faith, stand in such decided contrast to the magnificent 
pomp of a high mass which the Archbishop is celebrating 
with grand ostentation to roaring, almost operatic music. We 
see halberdiers in gold glittering uniforms carrying their 
majestic weapons, canons in costly, embroidered vestures, 
the long rows of choir boys in their red and white surplices. 
About everything hovers the uncertain, mysterious dimness 
of strong clouds of incense rising, rising to the organ where 
they seem to scatter, as if torn asunder by the power of the 
tones. 

The Archbishop, with the fine mild head of a patriarch, 
a white flowing beard soft as silk, with the characteristic dig- 
nity and enlightenment of his movements, truly appears as a 
sort of higher being amidst surroundings where there is too 
great a display of external faith to leave much room for the 
internal and true. The service being ended, the entire mass 
of people move down the steps of the cathedral across the 
small square leading to the residence of the Archbishop, for- 
merly the place of an Arabian dignitary. A dense crowd hems 
the way in the hope of winning the blessings the prelate is 
bestowing, of kissing the hand he is holding out to every one. 
Passing from the twilight which reigns in the interior of the 
church to the glaring African sun which draws such mar- 
velously sharp outlines, the entire spectacle loses even more 
of its religious dignity, just as much as it gains in color 
splendor and theatrical effect. Later when we stand on the 
large mosque, one of the oldest as well as one of the most 
artistic Mohammedan structures, its principal ornament be- 
ing the long, seemingly endless rows of column-pairs joined 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 



47 



by the horseshoe arches — we realize that this is a totally 
different religious picture. Here and there between these 
dazzling white pairs of columns Mohammed's faithful stand 
in deep prayer. In the extraordinary perspective of a space, 
disappearing into mysterious space, each one at prayer pro- 
duces the impression as if he were the center of a worship 
full of the deepest humility, endless subjugation to the will 




Street Scene, Algiers. 

of a higher being. When they fall down and touch the 
ground with their forehead, when with their arms stretched 
out they seem to embrace something invisible, when coM^ering, 
praying, they lie upon the sacred carpets like beings who in 
the feeling of their own impotence seek protection in the de- 
basement of self — they seem to be the humble, almost to self- 
annihilation, humble servants of a God whom they love with- 
out doubting but perhaps, too, without the understanding 
for His grandeur, merely out of implicit obedience to the 
word which His prophet preached to them. 



48 CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 

The old city seems to crawl and climb to the ancient 
fortress which crowns the hill. Streets, chaotic and bewil- 
dering, without light and air, wrapped in shadows which fit 
so well to the dirt which covers them, to the putrid smells 
which stream together from all these intertwined narrow 
kennels. So-called streets are lined with walls which would 
long have crumbled despite the small space separating them if 
strong beams did not maintain the distance. Next to decay- 
ing rocks §tand artistic old gates and isolated pillars which 
here truly ^peak of bygone glory. ' ^Obscure by-streets run into 
a magnificent court where we can not even detect the slight- 
est trace of the palace to which it formerly belonged. Then 
again long rows of walls and nothing but walls into which 
hollows and recesses have been cut, just large enough to ac- 
commodate a small stock of goods and a human being, the 
latter in such crooked, distorted positions as only an Oriental 
can master. We see beggardly pieces of meat, at the same 
time play-groujid for the boisterous flies, bunches of onions and 
leek, small piles of fresh vegetables, shoes, metal work, silks 
and velvets, perfumes and salves, ornaments and jewelry, 
veils and fabrics, carpets and webbing, fruits and cakes, piled 
next to and above each other in one grand pell-mell — and 
everywhere crouching, smoking, playing or musing figures, 
clothed in dirty white or dust-gray, sitting in front of or in 
the center of their goods, sometimes as if grown together with 
the very decay and crumbling of their entire surroundings. 

As if in sheer irony almost at every step we find 
long-winded instructions by the French authorities regard- 
ing cleanliness, removal of rubbish, sanitary matters, all of 
which no one can read, no one can understand and certainly 
no one has the intention of obeying. More gliding and slid- 
ing than walking, veiled women appear from side paths 
or quickly opened gates, only with a shy glance, to disappear 
again. Even they with very few exceptions, lack all charm, 
all fascination of coloring. With noise and bustle the swarm 
of peddlars, water-carriers and beggars are crowding through 
street so narrow that those who meet must draw in their 
elbows in order to pass one another. The difference between 
the new city and the better portions of the Arabian quarters 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 




Cathedral in Algiers. 



50 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 



quickly becomes obliterated. We can almost count the days 
until this, too, will become monotonously leveled. We realize 
this fact almost without regret. For if Orientalism is robbed 
of its colors, its magnificent light and splendor which oc- 
casionally idealized even the very dirt, if not much more 
remains than this same dirt in all its unsentimental horror, 
if a race degenerates because it has intentionally been forced 
to relax its inherited customs, its traditional habits without 
having been given even the slightest understanding for the 
other Western civilization — it is absolutely immaterial what 
course this process takes. Eventually not much more of the 
old, formerly so famous Arabian quarters of Algiers will re- 
main, as must needs be retained to present to those strangers 
who believe and have faith in everything shown them, as an 
exbibition of costumes and decorations of the "unadulterated" 
Orient. 




Arabian Cemetery. 



VJ. 

^Monte Pellegrino^ the Protean Guardian of Palermo — 
Walls of Jewels^ Columns of Gold — The Court of 
the Benedictin Monastery in Monreale — Smiling 
Life in a Decaying Cloister Court — A Busy Day on 
the ^'Hohenzollern " — Imperial Flowers for the 
American Ladies — The Emperors Ensign — A 
Glowing Farewell Greeting. 

Like a vigilant^ defiant^ enormous guard Monte Pelle- 
grino stands before the city of Palermo. Wherever we ma)^ 
be, wheriver we may come from or go, from land or sea, this 
mountain of many shapes and forms seems to control the 
entire picture. As diverse as are its adjuncts, as much as 
its lines seem to be a collection of all well-known mountain 
formations, as a whole, we remember it as something abso- 
lutely original, extraordinary. Behind it, surrounding and 
embracing the city in graceful curves, are greening hills, 
charming hills and hills with a serious aspect, as here or there 
we may have seen them before, perchance have even loved. 
Their importance, however, is merely that of being decorative 
accessories — no more; their purpose seems to be solely to form 
a frame for the Sicilian capital, a city which seemingly has 
not received even half the appreciation it deserves. 

Beyond a doubt Palermo as a city can more than stand 
the comparison with N"aples. This also as far as its pictu- 
resque and unusual location are concerned. For undoubtedly 
v/e are predisposed in favor of Naples, merely out of habit 
and obedience to the traditions sanctioned by the poets of all 
ages — according to my opinion, infinitely more than it de- 
serves. If we rob Vesuvius of the clouds of smoke it puffs 
and puffs, sometimes with greater sometimes with less force, 
as well as of the wierdly fascinating thought of all the hor- 



52 CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 




Palermo. 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 53 

rors it may still perpetrate, and consider it pnrelv from the 
point of view of a mountain formation, it can stand abso- 
Intely no comparison with its intimate colleague Aetna, and 
assuredly not with the protean, multiform guardian of Paler- 
mo, Monte Pellegrino. 

Those who approached the city from the sea, perchance 
later to look down npon it from the heights of Monreale, will 
have made the satisfactory experiment that the view from 
above, as well as below, presents an eqnally fascinating pic- 
ture. The broad curve of its sea front — which seems for 
all the world as if sketched by the hands of an artist — con- 
tinues in proportionally larger dimensions in the group of 
mountains enclosinsr a valley, of semicircular shape, and teem- 
ing with luxuriant fruitfulness. which seems almost caressing- 
ly to enter the very streets of the city. 

Fortunatelv, we are frequently interrupted in the con- 
templation of Palerm.o elegance, one of straight lines, hence 
trulv uninterestino". bv monuments of architecture and art, 
which remind us that four races, equally famous for their 
advanced civilization — the Grecian. Eoman, Saracen and N'or- 
man — took part in the work of buildinar un this ancient com- 
mercial city. Of the classical spirit, to be sure, little more 
than traces are left. But what the ISTorman exquisite sense 
of colors could o-lean from the Arabian wonderful sense of 
forms, more correctlv speaking, perhans, to what marvelous 
combinations two so fundamentally different branches of art 
could be and were melted tosrether, we can see, learn to un- 
derstand and appreciate nowhere better than in the Dome of 
Monreale, or in the Capella Palatina in the Palazzo Eeale. 

If the Dome completelv carries us away and affects us 
more powerfullv through what at the first glance appear to he 
absolutely bewildering dimensions of the main isle, the enor- 
mous size borderinof on hu^reness of th^? Mosaic portraits, the 
entire charm of this srlitterino- art of inlaid bits falls upon us 
when we enter the Capella Palatina, where not one nook can 
be found which is not fflistenine in arolden, deep-hued, fabu- 
lous colors. The thousand and one other treasures harbored in 
this chapel, carved or chisel work, columns of choicest fan- 
tastic, ornaments revealing the Oriental's whole profound 



54 CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 

joy in beautiful fornis^ all these we must almost learn to 
notice, step for step^ so completely are we held under the spell 
of this all-commanding Mosaic picture. Here we learn to 
understand descriptions we have read of walls built of jewels, 
of golden columns, fabulous animals stilL showing that para- 
disiacal variety and diversity of colors lost to this other world 
with the fall of man. Even Nature in her robe of spring 




The Cathedral, Palenno. 



seems dull' and unattractive when we pass into the street be- 
witched and blended by a world of particles full of that stud- 
ied, well-conceived splendor created by human beings, human 
hands alone. 

How totally different is the effect of the same art when 
it is used solely as a supplementary part, only as ornament 
not as purpose, and end in itself. Its application for purposes 
of adornment appeared in two excellent examples. The court 
of the Benedictin monastery in Monreale contains a wealth 
of column pairs, on which to a great extent the same Mosaic 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 



55 



motives have found ex^Dression. Inexhaustible in the variety 
of their details are those in a beautiful corner of the court, 
where low murmuring water is gurgling from an old Moorish 
fountain. An imagination strongly inclining to symbolism 
has chiselled whole chapters of biblical and contemporary 
history into some of these capitals, but adorned the shafts 
with ornaments which, through their infinitely stronger fas- 




cination, involuntarily decrease the more discreet charm of 
these annals of history in stone. The inner square of the 
court is covered with a luxuriant growth of flowers, as closely 
grown together and as diverse in their coloring as is each 
single particle of Mosaic. With the mild blue of a peaceful 
sky as roof, everything here breathes calm, peace and con- 
templation. If the inevitable talkativeness of the guide did 
not frequently almost rudely break into the spell of this idyl, 
we could readily imagine ourselves transported for hours and 
hours into a time long passed by when the keen enjoyment 
of observing and seeing were still acknowledged as arts in 
themselves. 

Even this cloister court seems loud, not to sav obtrusive, 
to us when, somewhat later, we stand in that of the Chiesa 
di S. Giovanni degli Eremiti. Here nature herself "seems 
to have undertaken the task of continuing, with constantly 



56 CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 

new inspirations and fabnlons profusion, what human hands 
originally constructed. Undisturbed by care or cultivation, 
nature greens and grows with that alarming abundance we 
frequently find in places consecrated to the dead. Dead 
mortals, dead structures. With her innate elements, creating- 
effacing-extinguishing nature continues her work. Clefts 
and crevices she fills with blooming flowers; where she wishes 
to bring out the particular beauty of a form she draws a 




Interior of the Cathedral, Monreale. 

mantle, an unbroken mosaic of tenderest green about it. She 
composes frescoes, creates small columns of flower-like slim- 
ness. All that could remind us of the futility of earthly 
things, of the pain of death and decay, she decks with her 
most vivid, animated magic. Earely can we see more smiling, 
sunny, fascinating life than pervades this decaying cloister 
court. So profoundly does this feeling move us that we are 
loathe to break the peace and quiet of this spot with one 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 57 

single loud word. Even our guide, a patriarch from the days 
of (J-aribaldi, who otherwise cannot praise his dead hero with 
sufficient fervor and dramatic expression, has learned here to 
remain quiet, solemnly quiet. Though he doubtlessly has 
seen this picture thousands of times, he seems to be possessed 
by something akin to humble reverence for all this new life, 
which again and again blossoms out of the ruins of this 
cloister court. 

We drop anchor almost abreast of the "Hohenzollern,^^ 
which, sailing under convoy of the battleship "Friedrich 
Karl,^^ and the dispatch boat "Sleipner,^' had entered the 
harbor the previous evening. Both ships are dressed with 
flags, and throughout the entire day the exchange of cour- 
tesies between the "Prinzessin Victoria Luise'^ and the im- 
perial squadron was continued, as begun, on a footing of 
equality. A few moments later we could see a small com- 
pany, evidently most informally and thoroughly enjoying 
themselves, swiftly gliding towards land in a launch. The 
Emperor, dressed in an English sack coat' and soft felt hat, 
is visibly in the best of humor. A smile lights up his hand- 
some, sunburnt face, and he almost seems to be the fourth 
of the three slim^ well-built young princes with whom he is 
so animatedly speaking. The Empress looks remarkably well 
and as fresh as a rose. Her beautiful white hair gives her 
a truly youthful appearance, so strongly does it contrast with 
her clear, florid comj)lexion and her sparkling eyes. A true 
picture of a happy family taking a vacation with the principal 
aim and purpose of deriving as much pleasure therefrom as 
possible. Aside from the representative duties and the high 
politics which continually played into the imperial trip, noth- 
ing was left undone which could afford keen enjoyment to the 
Emperor as man. 

We are rowed to the "Hohenzollern,^' where the officer 
on duty receives us with the cordiality characteristic of these 
sea diplomats, who are always, and must always be, prepared 
for anything and everything. The Emperor is enjoying ex- 
cellent health, his voice is completely intact, and. as always, 
he holds divine service on board. He receives and returns 
visits of many hours^ duration, and carries on very animated 



58 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 



conversation with, many of his guests. The greater portion 
of the governmental affairs are being settled on board, and 
the Emperor shows not even the slightest trace of fatigue. 
Herewith all rumors again reporting the Emperor's health to 
be in a serious and very critical condition are or should be 
dispelled. 

. That all this was not merely an official bulletin but facts. 




Cloister, Court S. Giovanni degli Eremiti, Palermo. 

based on the truth and nothing but the truth, we had ample 
opportunity to observe in the course of the day. It was cer- 
tainly amusing, to say the least, to follow the proceedings on 
the "Hohenzollern'^ from our splendid decks. At about 
eleven o'clock the Emperor returned and changed his clothes, 
a process he repeated several times during the da}^ and then 
appeared on the after-deck as Admiral, with a field-glass 
under his arm. Here his first occupation was to sign and 
settle several documents. Then the reception of the official 
guests began, who, according to rank and dignity, were greet- 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 59 

ed at the gangway either by the Emperor in person or the 
officer on duty. Among them was Captain liuser of the 
"Prinzessin Victoria Luise/^ whose communication very evi- 
dently afforded His Majesty particular pleasure. For over 
twenty minutes we could see both gentlemen pacing up and 
down the deck, for it could certainly not be called walking, 
with the activity and enthusiasm which people only develop 
when they have truly interesting matters to tell one another. 
Not only the successful and satisfactory Mediterranean -cruise, 
but the passengers, too, were the subjects of conversation. 
As is generally the case, the "Hohenzollern" was open to in- 
spection for the passengers. It was considered and felt as 
an even greater kindness when, shortly before dinner, an im- 
perial aide-de-camp brought two baskets of most magnificent 
flowers, and presented them to "the American ladies" with 
the Emperor's kindest greetings. Those who know our 
American women can readily imagine that the battle for these 
imperial flowers was not without spirit. Should His Majesty 
have been at leisure to observe this skirinish, he would as- 
suredly have received very amusing ideas of the endless fund 
of enthusiasm and rapture of the feminine America when 
such a message from the crown is in question. 

What is more, several of the American ladies had re- 
turned to the yacht with far more valuable trophies, flowers 
which they had succeeded in capturing directly from the 
hands of the Emperor. To be sure, only as missiles, and, as 
a rule, merely as the chance goal of a chance throw. Never- 
theless, they remained imperial flowers, and retained their 
value as such, and, in addition, were a pretty souvenir of the 
floral procession which the city of Palermo had arranged in 
honor of Their Majesties, a function, however, which took a 
totally different course than was to be anticipated of the hot- 
blooded Sicilians. Primarilj^, a floral procession consisting 
of at the most two dozen wreathed carriages; these, to be 
sure, were, without exception, beautiful and thoroughly artis- 
tic. Among the many hundreds of ordinary vehicles riding 
up and down the Via Macqueda and the Via Liberta in dense 
columns, these were almost lost, and, if anything, brought 
the general "prosiness'^ still more prominently into the fore- 



60 CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 

ground. This was doubly astonishing in this time of roses, 
during wkich great bunches of these glorious flowers can be 
purchased for one lira. 

The two almost endless chains of people who hemmed the 
Corso assuredly represented the greater portion of the popu- 
lation. Nevertheless^ it was infinitely quieter and stiffer than 
in th.e streets of any Northern city. It seems almost im- 
possible to bring this into accordance with what is generally 
imagined as Sicilian passionateness. Be this as it may, these 
endless masses of well-dressed, incessantly talking beings, to 
whom no joke seemed too harmless, no opportunity too in- 
significant to enjoy a hearty laugh, presented an equally fes- 
tive and picturesque spectacle. There was an abundance of 
remarkably pretty girls with the certain glowing eyes which 
seem to express so endlessly much even when they wish to 
express absolutely nothing. Infinitely fonder of flirting are 
the men, who, moreover, use this talent to a degree and with 
an impudence which eventually causes us to smile, whether 
we are so inclined or not. As a rule, there is so little harm 
meant in their staring, their original and particular f oi'm of 
compliment; but to strangers it seems an insult, until they 
become accustomed to it, as well as tO' the eloquence of their 
hands, each finger of which can be an ardent rhapsodist. 

Until late in the afternoon the Palermians were forced to 
supply their own amusement and entertainment. Then the 
approaching cavalry and an increased police force indicated 
that the guests of honor were already under way. Very soon 
we were able to establish this fact, for from afar a cavalcade 
approached, not only in a thoroughly original, but a very pictu- 
resque manner. Up to that time but very few flowers had been 
thrown, as every one held their entire supply in reserve for 
tlie imperial carriages. Now from right and left a veritable 
hail of gayest flowers poured down upon the guests, forming 
something akin to a triumphal arch through which the ve- 
hicles must wend their way. The imperial couple had very 
large baskets of flowers in their carriage, sufficient ammuni- 
tion to enable them to take up the battle with any and every 
one. Particularly the Emperor, with untiring energy, threw 
bunch after bunch into the carriages as well as to the thou- 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 61 

sands standing densely crowded together. Where and when- 
ever he saw women^s hands outstretched to him, he at least 
attempted to comply with their mute request. As his carriage 
proceeded very slowly, it was an easy task for the Emperor 
to leave a veritable "Siegesallee" of beautiful women behind 
him as he passed along. More vivaciously, more enthusias- 
tically, about in proportion to the difference in years, the 




Sicilian Cart, Palermo. 



princes, immediately following in their carriage, took up 
the battle with Palermo. Occasionally the skirmish became 
so animated that a most unceremonious exchange of these 
perfumed compliments, which they threw at one anothers' 
heads, ensued. 

The first guests for the court dinner were arriving at the 
"HohenzoUern,'^ and at the same time the "Prinzessin Vic- 
toria Luise'' was preparing to put to sea. Cheer after cheer, 
"Hoch der Kaiser!'^ was sent across the short span of water 
separating the two ships. Then, but a few moments before 
we weighed anchor, tbe entire imperial squadron flamed up 
in shining, glittering outlines, the Emperor's ensign heaved 
into sight drawn in colored lights. Very, very slowly we turn 
out of the harbor. All around us the music sounds and re- 



62 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 



sounds^ echoes and re-echoes on every ship. The sailors and 
all those of the crew not on duty are standing on the fore part 
of the deck^ responding to the tireless farewell cheers of the 
Americans, who so unexpectedly had experienced an imperial 
day in Italy with all its sensations. We are riding ahead at 
full steam. Almost more quickly than we can follow moun- 
tain after mountain disappears into the night. Only Monte 
Pellegrino is still visible, standing before the glittering city 
of Palermo like a vigilant, defiant, enormous guard. Then a 
row of ships, built to their very mastheads of warm, glowing 
light. Above them flutters, heaving into sight and as if put 
together of glorious jewels, the Emperor's ensign. 




Tarantella Dancers 



VII. 

^Entering the Harbor of Ajaccio — Napoleon Monu- 
ments — Interior Studies in the Mansion of the 
Bonapartes — The Bedroom of ''^Madame Mere'' — 
Napoleon s Vision of Approaching Pomp and 
Splendor. 

In entering the harbor of Ajaccio even before the city 
itself, the new quarter for strangers becomes visible and shows 
that advancement has made these shores, upon which for- 
merlv rested the ill-fame of inhospitality, to a rival of the 
Iviviera whose importance can by no means be ignored. We 
see primarily that well-known type of hotel and villa, built 
with the idea of as much light and air as possible. Particu- 
larly that type which appears even more cheerful the more 
it disappears amidst garden green, forest green and moun- 
tain green. All the fagades are turned towards the south, 
the birth-place of the mild, recuperative breezes, the spot of- 
fering the most tempting panorama. First we see a glorious 
chain of mountains with crests of snow. Then meeker sum- 
mits, their wdiite crowns no longer perfect in their glitter, 
show that here it has been but fleeting glory. The majestic 
self-conscious mountain kings, in the full dignity of their 
everlasting snow are undauntedly looking straight at the 
sun which is wrapping the deep blue shadows about them, 
glorious shadows which can be born of the light only in those 
heights. Many of the mountain tops are still sleepily nest- 
led deep in the clouds through which the sun they are hiding, 
is sending its first rays. A light breeze is slowly driving mist 
and haze across the skies, thus constantly revealing an inex- 
haustible wealth of new forms and shapes. A second chain 
of mountains tow^ers high up in the heavens, from crown to 
base, sparkling, glittering glaciers. Small shining lakes with 
glaring icy shores are embedded in their crests. Unap- 



64 CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 

proachable and imsnnnouiitable for all who do not understand 
and cannot climb to the summits of these clouds on paths or 
ladders built by the imagination. In this world of phantasy 
we find prairie-lands of a sober, melancholy gray, listlessly 
gliding on their way, cloud castles and fortresses, their gigan- 
tic pinnacles and towers of an almost audacious wildness, and 
whole cities, their dome-shaped houses lying closely, closely 
together. 

The island-city Ajaccio is built far out into the harbor 
on a peninsula tapering to a sharp point. In the course of 
time its Quais have become decidedly modernized and we 
must walk through the glorious avenue of palms leading to 




Harbor View of Ajaccio. 

the monument of the First Consul in order to reach the 
Ajaccio of the Bonapartes. But then we wander and delve in 
remembrances which have retained not only an inherent his- 
torical, picturesque and artistic value, but above all are a com- 
plete and true picture of the times they stand for. That with 
comprehensible pride the Corsicans have brought all and 
every point to which any, even the slightest, connection with 
the Dynasty can be traced, into the most conspicuous promi- 
nence, is but natural. That there is no lack of Napoleon 
monuments almost goes without saying. The one erected in 
honor of the First Consul, standing amid palms grown to 
an enormous height since those days, is perhaps the most ma- 
jestic and dignified, even though the unavoidable theatrical 
costume effect is strongly apparent which must necessarily 
result when modern people are put in togas. Infinitely more 
strongly does this feeling take possession of us when we stand 
opposite the family monument raised on the Place du Dia- 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 



65 



mant by Napoleon the Third in honor of the great and first 
Napoleon and his brothers. The Emperor as imperator is 
proudly mounted on a steed, there is little or no resemblance, 
the sculptor having deprived him of his shortness of stature. 
The four brothers, on side pedestals, are standing erect, also 
clad in togas and holding the insignias of Eoman dignitaries. 
The entire monument is splendidly situated facing the open 
sea and is not uninteresting, at least purely from the stand- 
point of a piece of sculpture. But we cannot resist the feel- 
ing of mirth which overcomes us at the thought of the 
"Eomans" Jerome and Joseph Bonaparte. The ^^ittle Cor- 




Riie Eonaparte, Ajaccio. 

poral,"^ too, looks infinitely better and more at home in his 
stereotype pose of the keen-sighted god of battles, as he ap- 
pears in the Hotel de Ville. 

The oldest portions of the city, lying between the Rue 
Fesch and the Cathedral, have remained so: well preserved 
that even to-day we can easily imagine them as the scene of 
action of those events which constitute the great past of 
Ajaccio. The costumes to be sure' and the show windows 
have changed. Whether to their advantage, primarily as re- 
gards the former, we can unfortunately not answer affirma- 
tively. Walking through, the Eue de Lettizia we look for the 
house of the Bonapartes with unconcealed suspense. Judg- 
ing by its plain facade, lacking all ornament, we could read- 
ily pass by without deeming it more than the simple home 
of some unassuming citizen. The interior shows us, the very 
moment we enter the first room, that the Royal Councellor, 



66 CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 

Assessor of the city and province of Ajaccio^ later member 
of the Counsel of the Twelve, Carlo Bonaparte, was not mere- 
ly one of the most esteemed but one of the wealthiest mem- 
bers of this community. 

With the birth and death houses of famous men, ^^there 
is no telling/^ Many do not show us much more than the piety 
reflects which is in us, which we bring with us. Others present 
such characteristic, true pictures that involuntarily our 
imagination becomes the stage for those other scenes they 
logically suggest and enliven. Then the true scene of action 
before us, we see things probably not exactly as they were, but 
at least as they easily might have been. Each nook and cor- 
ner, the entire house of the Bonapartes, lives. A shaky 
spinet stands in the corner of the music room. The chair 
belonging — an invalid with a broken fourth leg — still stands 
beneath it as a scrupulous housewife might have placed it to 
hide this, for the moment irreparable damage, from her 
guests. The sofa and broad, straight-backed chairs are up- 
holstered with heavy brocade of a yellow and red pattern, 
A large tin cup is standing on the table, painted with very 
bright-colored flowers, a piece which in its day possessed the 
value of distinction. Above the marble fire-place hano^s a 
lar^e mirror, we can imagine, almost see, the boy Napoleon 
sitting there listening to the playing of "Madame Mere." 

The adjoining chamber was the working room of his 
father. The windows look into a small, charmingly arranged 
court-garden. A beautiful chest inlaid with colored marble 
probably aroused the curiosity and interest of the intelligent 
boy just as the old Venetian chandelier must have seemed to 
him las the glittering symbol of the distinction of his house. 
One step further and we stand in the bed-room of the proud 
mother — Lettizia. As:ainst the wall rests a broad, gray bed 
adorned with pamted flowers. It is quite superfluous to 
waste our sentimental thoughts upon it for the great Napo- 
leon was born on the small narrow couch — the mother had 
requested that she be carried there when she felt that her 
hour had come. Perhaps it was because she did not wish 
her agonized glances to fall on the binartite mirror crowning 
the fire-place right opposite her bed. Next tO' it hangs an ex- 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 67 

cellent portrait of this famous woman. We at once recog- 
nize the remarkable resemblance with the son, particularly 
striking in the case of the eyes. Only that the, in later years 
iirm, stern, commanding and tyrannical expression of his 
face is replaced by one of endless softness and sweetness in 
that of Lettizia. As a young lieutenant the resemblance may 
still have been greatest, in the days when he returned to this 
home to enjoy his leave of absence. Days when he comfort- 
ably settled in his old sleeping room with its broad, plain 




Main Street, Ajaccio. 

bed, the spacious bureau and a night-table almost too dainty 
for a warrior. How often may he have thrown coat and sword 
on this bed, himself next to them, then in the peaceful safety 
of his home, imdisturbedly to abandon himself to the dreams 
of his immeasurable ambition. Perchance he even softly 
opened the door which led into the large ball-room, so admir- 
ably suited to awaken the first visions of approaching pomp and 
splendor. The long walls are decorated Avith beautiful gilded 
mirrors to which sconces arc affixed. The furniture covered 
with yellow, imperial yellow satin, stands in perfect order 
between the broad windows. Bronze figures ornament the 
console-tables and above them hang mirrors exceptionally 
costly for those times. 

Everything was held strictly in the style of the "Direc- 
toire^^ with a heavy elegance suited to the seriousness of that 
period. Surely more than once in this room, to the tones of 
stiff, pompous music and amidst the beautiful women with 
which the house of N'apoleon and its kin were so richly 
blessed, the Corsicans with all their cunning and wildness 



68 CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 

planned conspiracies and revoliitions. Beyond a doubt more 
freely^ intimately and intensely in the adjoining smoking 
room where the gentlemen retired from the dance and their 
duties as cavaliers, there with passionate head and passionate 
gestures to create the world anew on their plan. A quaint 
pendulum clock from Sirest in Paris, in its tireless way ticked 
the time amidst the commotion of these debates. Four pil- 
lars carrying four urns, these supporting a plate on which 




Ball-room in the Bonaparte Mansion. 

a maiden is kneeling pouring oil into a sacrificial lamp of 
the most beautiful curves. A broad, cheerfully grinning sun 
constitutes the pendulum. 

In the dining room, which is almost as spacious as the 
saloon, the refreshments were undoubtedly served — rows of 
bottles, of course, containing heavy French wines and the 
blood-red ones of the native soil. Against the wall stands a 
couch with four settees adorned with several stray pillows. 
The chairs are perhaps more comfortable than was con- 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 



69 



sidered quite the proper thing in those days. A large inlaid 
chest probably served as sideboard, and we can almost see 
all the nobility of Corsica crowding around it, who consid- 
ered an invitation to the house of the Bonapartes a great 
honor and distinction. In one of the corners of this cosy, 
comfortable room young Kapoleon may have stammered his 
first declarations of love to his beautiful cousins or the 
friends of his sisters, a love to become as tyrannical and in- 
considerate as the entire man. Most vividly we can picture 
Lettizia w^alking among her many guests, already in those 
days with the dignity of an Empress mother and proudly 
looking upon her children who through the generous mood of 
the one, the peerless one, should each attain their little 
thrones. 




Corsican Tjpes. 



70 CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 




Entering the Blue-Grotto on a Stormy Day. 



VIII. 

\Capri the Island of Strong Contrasts — Hovering 
Amidst Fabulously Welded Tiffany Glass — Beauties 
Without Commentaries — From Goletta to Tunis — 
The Brown Sons of a Brown Land — A Wound 
Which Can Never Heal — High Priests of the 
Bazaar City of Tunis. 

Very soon after the Capri pilgrim lias lost sight of that 
well-known panorama of the Bay of Naples in whose praise 
and eulogy all available words have long been exhausted, the 
most poetical phrases have been hackneyed^ the rocky shores 
of Sorrent rise np before him. In the background stands a 
chain of mountains showing several rejuvenations of the 
conical peak of Vesuvius. In the deep indentation of a moun- 
tain ridge and visible from far, far away, appears a cliurch 
with two stately towers. Then, we see a street, running to- 
wards the same ridge, like a deep furrow in the ground. 
Of the small villages bordering it we get but a glimpse of 
roofs, for the houses are as if carefully hidden behind the 
dense crowns of orange and lemon trees. The dark stone- 
pines seem to stand there like so many spreading umbrellas, 
ready to protect and screen this smiling land from any dan- 
ger that could threaten it. 

Suddenly and unexpectedly the steep walls of rock al- 
most spring into sight and on their sloping terraces we first 
see the many large hotels of the place, then the town lying 
further inland. It seems to have buried itself in its greening 
walls. Galleries have been cut, steps hewn and artificial 
buttresses built into the colored rocks. Frequently we are 
in doubt whether to tender more admiration to the natural 
foundation of this fortress-like construction or to the clever- 
ness of the human beino-s who knew so well to utilize it for 



72 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 



their own praotical purposes. As seen from the water all 
that rises above this precipice appears like a single, boundless 
garden. The light green of the grape vines, the silvery 
sparkle of the olive leaves, the deep, velvety, shining color of 
the orange and lemon trees, seem like a costly fabric into 




Marina Grande, Capri. 

which, ^^th a thousand golden threads, the heavy burden of 
the fruits has been embroidered — then blossoms of every kind 
and sort, promiscuously and confusedly strewn about like the 
inspirations of a fanciful imagination — small spots of color of 
totally different hues and tints. 

We glance at Capri now revealing a side-perspective best 
characterized as an almost false, misleading bulletin. Be- 
hind, or more precisely above, these wildly romantic towers 
of rock built up of blocks of the most massive forms, above 
these rugged walls apparently agglomerated by a single blow, 
we would scarcely surmise the charm Capri really possesses. 
We strike innumerable similarly strong contrasts on the isl- 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 



73 



and. They arise primarily from the fact that a landscape 
picture of a Norwegian seriousness is joined, more correctly 
grown, to another most adequately described with the words 
'^full of a blooming joyousness." Another contrast arises 
when deceptive Capri at first presents but a narrow row of 
squalid houses, houses appearing as if pasted to the sharp 
edge of a rock whereas the town is so completely hidden in 
a square of surrounding hills that we must almost enter to 
notice it. On the Grande Marina, the landing-place, we 
stand face to face with buildings so completely grown to- 
gether that Avith all their crooked arches, slanting walls, deep- 




set windows, the crude, broad wooden gates, they seem like 
one old ruinous, dilapidated castle. 

With incomprehensible speed the small, short-legged 
horses rush up the mountain road leading to Capri. As par- 
ticular characterization they proudly wave a long pheasant 
feather on there heads. Eeaching a certain point on this high- 



74 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 



way, both sides of the beautiful island, both sapphire blue seas 
washing its shores, are lying before us. The rockland becomes 
visible, and we see its transformation into a veritable garden- 
land from which with almost conscious gracefulness the 
houses arise. Between them wander human beings who have 
become fully aware of their artistic value. How true to them- 
selves they may be in the months during which they live for 
themselves, the stranger is unable to imagine. For us every 




Capri, 



gesture is a studied pose, wherever a possibility presents 
itself they form into living pictures, poorly arranged ones at 
that. We must constantly keep in mind that not the men and 
women, but the country they cultivate, constitutes the charm 
of Capri. This is our only protection, preventive against 
letting this entire crowd, from beggar to queen of the town, 
spoil the charm of our mood. 

We are rowed to the Blue Grotto in small boats. It is 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 



75 



almost symbolical that shortly before reaching the entrance 
we miistj as though in admiration^ lay prostrate in the bot- 
tom of the boat, not to rise again until we are in the very 
center of this wonder. That heathen primitive races would 
have connected a religious cult with this phenomenon of 
nature, we may assert almost with certainty. The Italians 
who have become almost barbarously practical, have en- 
deavored even here to take advantage of Mother Nature and 
have painted the entire chasm a charming light blue. 

The tirst impression we receive is something akin to 
hovering amidst a fabulously uniformly welded Tiffany glass 
in which we are moving, floating onwards in some mysterious 
manner. An absolutely crystal-clear blue fills the entire space 
— a single motion and it glimmers and glitters like mother- 
of-pearl. Wrapped about us is shadowless light falling on 
the surface of the waters which seem but a continuation of 
the same resplendent rays of color. Far, far in the back- 
ground we see boys whose bright skin seems to be covered as 




Capn. 



76 CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 




City Gate, Tunis. 

with a radiant enamel of jewels. Where they shoot into the 
waters — divers, who in the only too well known manner are 
jumping for pieces of money — leave sparkling traces behind 
them. When they return safely with their booty and joyously 
shake the water from their smooth bodies it seems as if an un- 
exampled squanderer were recklessly throwing away a hand- 
ful of glittering- sapphires. Each stroke of the oars produces 
odd^ fantastic sounds in the relatively small grotto. But it 
is quite possible that in our unconscious excitement we hear 
sounds and see things which do not exist. So probably each 
one in his way will experience wonders in the Blue G-rotto 
different, new and such as are inconceivable to other mortals, 
or at least will subsequently recount such. For an expert 
traveller's education demands that at certain spots on this fair 
universe they be capable of certain necessary deep feelings 
and sensations. Then to inflict these upon our fellow-suf- 
ferers in the most obtrusive and loudest manner is a matter 
of that certain tact which people can easily acquire if they 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 



77 



continually keep in mind that out of each phenomenon of na- 
ture they should talk at least the value of the entrance fee 
they were forced to spend. 

How glorious, truly glorious, it must l)e in the Blue 
Grotto when for one single moment we may be permitted to 
enjoy its beauties without the commentaries of our fellow 
visitors only those few can relate who are the especial fav- 
orites of luck and the gods. 

♦ ♦ Hs 

From Goletta, the seaport of the city of ruins, Carthage, 
an artificial canal, averaging 100 meters in depth, leads to the 




Mosque Becquia, Tunis. 

inner harbor of Tunis. If the weather permits even ships of 
the draught of the "Prinzessin Victoria Luise" can enter to 
the very city. Slowly we proceed through the turbid waters, 
but the pictures unrolling before our eyes along this way, 
straight as an arrow, are worth and deserve being viewed in 
quiet contemplation. Whereas the new, pompous cathedral 
erected bv Cardinal Lavio-erie in CarthaRe, constitutes the 



78 CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 

one final point of the perspective, it is the six-cornered col- 
umn of the minaret on the mosque Sidi-Ben-Arous which 
on the other side, like a stately hand beckoning to ns, marks 
the end of this picture plane. As if grouping about it and 
seen from far, far away in the narrow frame of the canal, 
lies Tunis with its thousand roofs, hundred cupolas, slim and 
square towers pointing out the hallowed houses of God. A 
great expanse of country lies between the beginning and the 
end of this perspective. Far in the distance two mountains 
appear, probably separated by hundreds of miles, but seem- 
ing like twin brothers with their uniformly sharp and steep 
sloping lines. On the right, damp but very fruitful low 
country interspersed with water veins, spreads out before us. 
Systems of irrigation partially originating from Punic times, 
carry the water from mountains, glistening in the blue hazy 
distance, down to the valley in enormous structures. 

A brown country fitting so well to the brown sons of 
this earth which they plough. Alone or in pairs we see them 
wandering along the strips of land lying between the canals. 
Hardly a glance do they deign to bestow on our stately ship. 
For so many of them it remains the accursed invader who 
put an end to their days of quiet contemplation and boundless 
happiness. This broad deep furrow which the giaours tore 
through their sacred lands merely to penetrate still deeper 
into the white city of a thousand roofs, is in their eyes a 
wound which can never heal. Others, to be sure, show hon- 
est admiration for this wonderful triumph in the art of ship- 
building gnd rim after us a considerable part of the way. 
The wind plays with their bornooses as with large many-col- 
ored wings. Their hands stretched far out and scarcely 
touching the ground with their bare soles, we could almost 
mistake the speed of their motion for flying. Sailboats with 
dirty, diverse colored canvas cross our way. Carefully they 
evade our ship which can draw the gurgling water so far, far 
behind it, can form waves even on this sluggish surface. Prin- 
cipally Nubians of the darkest shades are lounging on the 
decks, their sparkling eyes staring into the eternal nothing. 
Every motion they make is sluggish and they become furiou? 
when the strange ship forces them to see to their sails which 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 79 

they otherwise abandon entirely to the will of the wind. To 
the very mountains, as far as our eyes can reach, the vil- 
lages on this entire stretch lie open before us, uniform through 
the close proximity of their few streets, but full of pictu- 
resqueness. Windmills and palms stand nodding to one an- 
other when the light breeze plays with them. 

When these Arabian towns are sufficiently close to the 
water a charmingly noisy crowd of half-naked youths rushes 
to meet the ship, turn somersaults with their fabulously pli- 
able bodies, or quite literally stand on their head in amazed 
admiration. Above and about everything that wonderful air 
receiving its clearness from light so strong that even its 
shadows apDear bright. It dissolves all the colors into their 
most delicate hues, tints otherwise never seen, and thus pro- 
duces shades and mixtures, as occasionally, very rarely, highly 
gifted artists, such as are endowed w^th true prophetic fac- 
ulty, display on their palette. 

From the center of the Tunis of to-day with its coquet- 
tish boulevards, its broad streets through which the electric 




Street ^cene, 



80 CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 




A Shop, Tunis. 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 81 

car and the electric automobile seem to be running a race, 
its buildings which are supposed to appear modern but are 
in reality so ordinary and monotonous, we readily go astray 
into the bazaar-city of Tunis. Its streets are filled with 
treasures of which not even Sinbad the Sailor could relate. 
Densely, temptingly and artistically wares are displayed in 
the large, broad spaces between the pillars constituting the 
shops, which comprise all and everything generally called 
Oriental. What distinguishes these bazaars from others is 
the variety and diversity of their contents, the complete ease 
of the venders and a certain dignity with which they lead 
their customers through their shops, wait on them, and if 
possible dupe them. Certainly Allah is great and if he pun- 
ishes the giaour with sufficient stupidity and sufficient money 
it is the duty of the faithful to take advantage of both. But 
here we can learn the difficult art of fleecing our victim with- 
out causing him pain. With similar philosophical resigna- 
tion the shopman changes his svstem as soon as he realizes 
that his customer is his equal. Merely in the extent of busi- 
ness transacted lies the great fascination for many of thes& 
Orientals. Each sale appeals to them as a difficult game of 
chess, they feel that they are excellent players, but are ready 
to lose with good grace should they meet a stronger op- 
ponent. 

That we divide the sum of their original j)rice into but 
a fraction of same makes very little or no impression on 
them. This is an art which even their most certain victims 
have acquired, to whom after a single expert gl a\ice, they 
onlv state such prices from the very beginning which can 
stand almost any reduction. Those customers who are able 
to argue about an article with interest and a true understand- 
ing and appreciation for its artistic value, an article which by 
the way they have not the least intention of purchasing, only 
in the proper psychological moment, suddenly to bring an- 
other into question upon which they had seemingly prev- 
iously not even bestowed a single glance, and finally to make 
a decided offer and as a rule to g-ain their end and — the article. 
These are the transactions which excite, fascinate and pos- 
siblv irritate our friends, the shopkeepers. This psychological 



82 CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 

moment sets in when the vender has talked himself into a 
slightly feverish intoxication and has let the exaltation of his 
admiration to reach so high a pitch that the irresistible desire 
takes possession of him to remove the object of all this ex- 
citement from his presence. His brain simply reels, his 
head swims from the magnitude of his own exaggeration and 
he occasionally so far loses his self-possession that he sells at 
a loss. 

In the larger shops, also lying along these promenades 
carefully covered with wooden beams, where carpets, hang- 
ings, silken and embroidered fabrics, weapons and bronzes, 
but about all Oriental jewelry of that bizarre beauty which 
acknowledges no rules of form or color, lines or combina- 
tions, are heaped up, a totally different type of shopkeeper 
presides over his little kingdom. With the phlegmatic but 
self-conscious dignity of a Keeper of the G-reat Seal, to 
begin with, they receive the visitor as a guest. A stranger, 
moreover, whose blind, unappreciative eyes must be opened, 
long before he may enter the innermost sanctuary of his 
temple of goods. With confusing rapidity he is first shown 
those wares of which the principal fascination lies in the 
colors. Thus he may be overwhelmed, a bit bewitched, 
amid the splendor which is as deep as it is brilliant, as spark- 
ling as it is soft. When the first signs of passion appear in 
his face, the first signs of a desire for possession, time is 
granted him to see and admire that which has been shown 
him. And with words which enter his brain like a sweet, 
temptingly poison, he may dimly conceive more than know 
that this is the one opportunity of his life, the irrevocably only 
and last chance to purchase a bit of this beauty and glory for 
his home. But not even now may he purchase. Customers 
who already buy in this purgatory are worth very little. Only 
such who are strong enough, possess sufficient power of re- 
sistance to plod along and attain the seventh heaven mean a 
veritable gift of God for the proud owner of these glories. 
There he cruelly and heartlessly abandons him to his suffer- 
ings, the torment, the agony of making a selection, and adding 
to this the deep repentance of having set our heart and spent 
our money on things which now seem to us like a terrible. 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 83 




Arabian T)-pes. 



84 



CRUISING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 



haunting proof of onr ordinary, common stupidity in pur- 
chasing. Here we do not even bargain, for we quaver before 
the ironical, sharp glances with which the high priest who is 
here officiating would punish such presumption. We pur- 
chase and pay and deem it a special favor of the gods if we 
escape their envy unpunished, an envy which we have aroused 
through the possession of any one of these marvelously ex- 
quisite wonders. 

Seen in the soberness of the morning after to be sure, 
the treasure acquired in this way appears sometimes like a 
good, ordinary article which we can retain without any par- 
ticular feeling of any kind, can present to some one or if needs 
be can even lose. 




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